The rise in demand for IT business support and the resulting increase in density of IT equipment are stretching data center power and cooling resources to the breaking point. Recently, energy costs and the inability of data center infrastructures to accommodate new high-density computing platforms have become problems for data centers. Higher rack densities have caused power and cooling costs to surpass the costs of the IT equipment and the facility space.
The increase in server density is being driven by the need to maximize the use of data center floor space and to extend the life of data centers. As a result, rack power density (kW/rack) has grown more than five times over the past ten years. The growth in rack power density and the associated heat load are outpacing conventional thermal management techniques, which are typically designed for previous generations of IT equipment.
To lower total cost of ownership (TCO), data centers are struggling to adopt a paradigm that focuses on maximizing the energy efficiency of components, systems, and the infrastructure while controlling energy usage. Because the demand for IT business support will continue to increase, an organization's best strategy to manage growth is to improve power and cooling infrastructure efficiency.